Lime Rock: SunTrust Racing race report

A Truly Memorable Memorial Day for SunTrust
Angelelli Scores His 15th Career Rolex Series Win, Helps Taylor Get His
First As SunTrust Racing Moves Into Second in the Championship at Lime Rock
It was all in a day's work for veteran Max Angelelli...

A Truly Memorable Memorial Day for SunTrust
Angelelli Scores His 15th Career Rolex Series Win, Helps Taylor Get His
First As SunTrust Racing Moves Into Second in the Championship at Lime Rock

It was all in a day's work for veteran Max Angelelli and his 20-year-old
co-driver Ricky Taylor as the SunTrust Racing duo stayed out of trouble
and benefited from a perfect race strategy to score their first GRAND-AM
Rolex Sports Car Series victory of the season in Monday's Memorial Day
Classic at Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Conn.

At 9:30 a.m., today, Angelelli, Taylor and their fellow Rolex Series
Daytona Prototype-class competitors officially hit the 1.5-mile,
seven-turn road circuit nestled in the hills of northwest Connecticut
for the first time in series history. By 4:50 p.m., the checkered flag
waved to signal the end of today's grueling two-hour, 45-minute event,
and a triumphant Angelelli was the first to cross the finish line to
earn his 15th career Rolex Series victory and help his new co-driver
for 2010 score the very first win of his career in just his 25th career
start.

The race was grueling not only because of the fast-paced but tight,
seven-turn layout that made passing the slower, GT-class competitors a
constant challenge, but because of uncharacteristically warm, 84-degree
temperatures that are certainly not typical in this part of the country
at this time of year. Angelelli and Taylor not only managed to avoid the
kind of trouble that afflicted a handful of their fellow championship
contenders on this day, they spent every bit of their energy to work
the SunTrust car into the lead on three separate occasions, and to
keep it there for a race-high 95 of 174 laps thanks, in large part, to
rock-solid strategy.

"I wasn't worried about the strategy because I never understand strategy
to begin with," said a thoroughly exhausted Angelelli after getting
out of the No. 10 SunTrust Ford Dallara of Wayne Taylor Racing, which
crossed the finish line a comfortable 4.791 seconds ahead of the
runner-up No. 8 Starworks Motorsports BMW Riley of Mike Forest and Ryan
Dalziel. "I usually have no clue what's going on. I just drive. Simon
(Hodgson, general manager) and Travis (Jacobson, technical director)
and the whole SunTrust Racing team did a fantastic job of telling me my
lap times and the pace I have to carry, and that really helped me drive
through the field and stay in the lead. Ricky did a fantastic job again
today. He won this race with me. We got a podium together at the last
race (at Virginia International Raceway in Alton), and he got his first
pole position at Barber (Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Ala.) the race
before that. I crashed and ruined his pole position at Barber -- sorry!
But now we have won a race, so we are going to continue our fight for
the championship."

"This is just great," said Taylor about getting his first career win.
"I really don't know what else to say. Driving for my dad, and driving
with Max, it's definitely a dream come true. I'm really not surprised
that we were able to do what we did today. I think it was just a matter
of not making any mistakes. The SunTrust car's been fast every weekend.
The team gives us a winning car every single weekend. I don't think,
speed-wise, it was anything different today. It was just keeping out
of trouble, a really good strategy, and controlling the race from the
front."

Taylor started the day's festivities by qualifying third, but then was
awarded the outside-front-row starting spot when the No. 90 Spirit
of Daytona Racing Porsche Coyote of Antonio Garcia and Buddy Rice,
which clocked the second-fastest lap in qualifying, failed technical
inspection. Taylor got off to a clean start in the race and patiently
dogged the polesitting Nic Jonsson in the No. 75 Krohn Racing Ford Lola
for the first 20 laps. On the 21st lap, as the leaders were trying to
make their way through a pack of GT-class cars, Taylor slipped past
Jonsson and into the lead, which he held until pitting at the 43-minute
mark for fuel, tires and driver change.

Meanwhile, on the opening lap of the race, the championship-leading
No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates BMW Riley of Memo Rojas
was out of contention before even getting through the fast, sweeping
right-hand turn one. Rojas was forced off-course and into soft dirt that
ripped the nose and front-mounted radiator right off the car, and that
marked the end of its day. It limped around the track for 13 laps after
attempts to repair the damage, but then was retired, in last place.

"This being such a short track, and the effect that has on how we play
the traffic, I knew if I could get into the lead, I could manage the
race from there and just run the pace that I wanted to," said Taylor
of his opening stint. "I caught Nic Jonsson just when a GT car kind
of killed his momentum, and I got around him. That was all I needed
because all I really needed to do from there was to play the traffic and
maintain my gaps and just hold him behind. My in and out laps -- that's
when I really needed to push to get the gap for Max so he could get out
of the pits in the lead. On the race start, I got lucky. I was hoping
I wouldn't have to go into the first corner on the outside. I was able
to slide in there behind Jonsson. Then I saw Rojas coming around the
outside and I was thinking that was a big risk, considering where they
are in the championship and everything. And then I didn't see anything
after that."

Angelelli resumed in sixth place after taking over for Taylor at the
43-minute mark, 45 laps into the race. He broke back into the top-five
17 laps later with a pass of Terry Borcheller in the No. 9 Action
Express Racing Porsche Riley that won the season-opening Rolex 24 At
Daytona. He then got by Brian Frisselle in the No. 6 Michael Shank
Racing Ford Riley on lap 72 before making a fuel-only stop under yellow
just four laps later. The sequence of stops, which also brought the
three cars of ahead of him into the pits, enabled Angelelli to move
back into the lead. He stayed there until lap 99, when the SunTrust
team called him back into the pits for what they hoped would be the
final fuel-and-tire stop of the day with a little more than an hour to
go. Angelelli resumed in ninth after the green-flag stop but gradually
made his way back to the front as the remaining competitors also had to
fuel up for the run to the finish over the next 20 minutes. He was up
to second, behind the No. 9 Porsche now driven by Joao Barbosa, after
several of the leaders stopped under yellow. Angelelli stayed in close
pursuit of Barbosa on the lap-123 restart, then moved past him into the
lead for good on lap 126 with 40 minutes remaining.

Angelelli weathered two more restarts before the checkered flag flew,
most notably the doggedly determined No. 60 Michael Shank Racing Ford
Riley of Oswaldo Negro behind him that made numerous attempts to get by
the SunTrust car despite being a lap down.

"The heat was bad enough, but in the end, the No. 60 really killed
me because I wanted to have him stay behind me and in front of the
(lead-lap) cars that were trying to catch up to me," Angelelli said. "He
(Negri) hit me three times. He was a lap down, so I don't understand
it. But, because of that, I was done, physically. The pace I had to
maintain, and for the amount of laps that I had to do it, that became
the problem. Pushing, pushing, never time to relax. I knew I had to
drive two hours today. And it was tough, hot, it was difficult. But, in
the end, when you pull out a win like this, it's a relief. You forget
how difficult it was. But it still was very demanding."

With the win, the SunTrust team moved from third to second in the
championship after five of 12 events, now 21 points behind the leading
Ganassi car, which finished second at the Rolex 24 and then reeled off
three consecutive wins before today's 13th-place finish in the prototype
class. The No. 59 Brumos Porsche of Darren Law and David Donohue is now
third, seven points behind the SunTrust team.

"Could I have imagined we were going to be the winners today?" asked
team owner Wayne Taylor, the three-time sports car racing champion who
won an IMSA World Sports Car event at Lime Rock back in 1995. "Not
really, because every time I feel positive about stuff, something bites
us. We've been so unlucky this year. We've been fastest at every race
but have just been able to get one podium before this weekend. But,
I'll have to say Travis and Simon and the guys did an outstanding job
today. There was not one mistake. The strategy was perfect. Obviously,
it was a relief for Ricky to get his first win. And I'm sure Max is
relieved because I'm sure he's tired of me beating on his head, and I'm
sure he's okay and happy, now. And it's great to have him win, having
won races with me, to now start winning races with Ricky. So, it's just
a great result. Thanks to SunTrust and Toshiba, who have never wavered
in their support of this team. When we're having dramas, it's so heavy
and so hard to balance everything. I must say the guys have had their
heads down and have been working flat out. Max drove a perfect race.
Ricky drove a perfect race. The calling was perfect. We got a decent
gain in the points. The (No.) 01 had a problem at the start. We're still
a long way behind, but we've got seven races to go to see what more we
can do. The biggest thanks go to SunTrust, which has supported this
move for Ricky to come on board. I know, at the end of the day, they
lead this program and they are always supportive of what we do, but I
have to thank them so much. I just wanted to make sure I was doing the
right thing. We've proven it a few times, now. Ricky's had a pole, a
podium and today's win in the last three races. I have to thank them for
allowing us to continue this unbelievable dream."

Round six of the 2010 Rolex Series schedule is Saturday's annual
Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen endurance marathon at Watkins Glen
(N.Y.) International.